COPD: When Cured Could Be the Cause
Are cured meats the cause behind your COPD?
BY:MYRA DEMBROW
If you munch on a lot of hot dogs, bacon and cured meats, your chances of getting chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are greatly increased, according to an analysis recently published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.COPD, the umbrella term for emphysema and chronic bronchitis, is the fourth leading cause of death in America, affecting about 11 million adults in 2004. Smoking is COPD's primary cause, researchers say.
Using the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Rui Jiang, MD, DrPH, an associate research scientist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, and his colleagues compared the diet and lung function of 7,325 adults. While the study associates cured meat with COPD, it does not conclusively establish a cause and effect. "We cannot say cured meat is associated with an increased risk of developing COPD, only that people who ate cured meat were more likely to have it," says Dr. Jiang.
However, the research, which will have to be expanded upon to establish causality, indicated that "people who eat fourteen or more servings of cured meat per month have about eighty percent increased odds of [developing] COPD versus people who don't eat cured meat at all," adds Dr. Jiang. What's more, the risk of COPD rose with the amount of cured meats eaten. Cured meats contain large amounts of nitrites, which have been linked to lung damage in animals.